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Thread: Is this poem a free verse?

  1. #1
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    Question Is this poem a free verse?

    I was just wondering, is this poem a free verse, or does it have a specific pattern?
    I'm having some real trouble identifying this pattern, if so.

    Old Mama Saturday

    By Marie Ponsot

    “Saturday’s child must work for a living.”
    “I’m moving from Grief Street.
    Taxes are high here
    though the mortgage’s cheap.

    The house is well built.
    With stuff to protect, that
    mattered to me,
    the security.

    These things that I mind,
    you know, aren’t mine.
    I mind minding them.
    They weigh on my mind.

    I don’t mind them well.
    I haven’t got the knack
    of kindly minding.
    I say Take them back
    but you never do.

    When I throw them out
    it may frighten you
    and maybe me too.

    Maybe
    it will empty me
    too emptily

    and keep me here
    asleep, at sea
    under the guilt quilt,
    under the you tree.”

  2. #2
    Maybe YesNo's Avatar
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    There seems to be a regular meter to the lines. For instance this stanza could be read with accents on the bold syllables:

    When I throw them out
    it may frigh-ten you
    and may-be me too.

    There might be a name for that meter, but I can't recall it at the moment.

    Some of the line breaks don't follow this meter, perhaps to confuse the reader. For example, the line

    With stuff to pro-tect, that

    The last syllable "that" I would put on the next line, but how it is formatted on the page doesn't really matter to the sound of the poem which doesn't require that it be read, only listened to. If one is only listening to the poem, there are no line breaks.

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